How enki23 started their custom wordpress themes journey

Company name

paulbohm.com

Overview

Hi,

My name's Paul, and paulbohm.com will be my personal weblog and portfolio. I plan to post articles, essays, projects and code on the weblog, and add the most interesting works to my project list. I'm looking for a simple but deliberate design to present my projects and articles in a good light.

I live in San Francisco and work as an engineer for a startup called Dropbox. I help build large internet applications and write about code, startups, graphs and things like that.

I like designs that are simple but not plain. At home, my room is white and empty except for a black bed. The few things that I own, I store in a small room hidden behind a bookshelf. This keeps my room free of clutter, but it also stands out in its simplicity. I like that it's simple and functional at the same time.

In terms of visual language i like retrofuturism, math symbols (lambda), graphs, anachronistic items/combinations, molecules, zeppelins, and other stuff like that - but i don't need it featured prominently - just some hints might be enough. i like analog touches in designs: dirty edges and transitions, inkdrops and smears. i care about thoughtful details.

Tell us a bit about who you are and the people you reach

The people I want to reach are excited about technology. Most of them will probably be early-adopters working for startups or in the it-industry. My mom will probably also read my blog.

I want want website to be a relaxed, non-corporate place to present my projects and essays in a good light. tumblrish, light, web2.0ish. A minimal but deliberate aesthetic is what I'm looking for.

I care about the design because I'm proud of my work, and I want to present my portfolio in a good light. I want people to notice when they visit my site for the second time, and to make it easy for people to find out what I'm working on and how to get in touch with me.

If I choose your design I can feature you prominently in a blog post if you want to.

Requirements

* Simple. One column Weblog (no more than two).
* Elements:
* Thin navigation/branding at top
* Blog posts list
* Single Blog Post View (with comments - ideally from Disqus)
* About/Contact Page where i can introduce myself
* links to my twitter, github, and linkedin accounts.
* Project Page to list and link projects (some subset of projectimage/name/short description/long description/link) - this is my portfolio, so just a boring list wouldn't be appropriate. square images that expand when you click on them? just multiple columns? something that's functional, but also a little unconventional maybe?
* High-contrast Blockfooter (black?) at the bottom (multiple columns for additional navigation - probably not used a lot initially, but gives me the option to add more stuff without cluttering the nav at the top)
* Colorschemes and Fonts/Typography for all of the above.
* Nice back/forward navigation for the blog history.
* An overarching design idea behind it all.
* Less features are ok if you make what's there look good.

A good, readable. colorscheme, great web-usable fonts, navigation that doesn't get in the way, and some playful or organic elements - whether pretty icons, inkdrops, gradients, smears, dents, or any other details that make the page a little bit more unique.

Just some nice touches to show someone cared, and to make the site less sterile - that's what matters most.